Worlds APART

THE ULTIMATE B.C. ADVENTURE TAKES GUESTS FROM BUSTLING VICTORIA’S FAIRMONT EMPRESS TO INCREASINGLY REMOTE STOPS AT TOFINO’S FAMED WICKANINNISH INN AND FINALLY NIMMO BAY RESORT IN THE GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST

- ABI HAYWARD

HELICOPTER BLADES SPIN, sending a light mist scurrying in eddies around the wooden deck that acts as a helipad at Nimmo Bay Resort. It lifts up into a beautiful B.C. landscape: forest blanketed hills, golden-glowing clouds snaking around lakes and mountains. It feels like the end credits to a movie. “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac is playing over the communication system.

Soaring over mist-drenched rainforest, the helicopter eventually reaches the ocean. On board, I’m trying to photograph the moment, alternating between my camera and phone. But when a spout of water shoots into the cerulean sky, I figure I’ll be able to capture what’s about to happen only in my memory. I watch as the void where the sparkling spray of water had been is filled first with a dorsal fin, then a smoothly shining body easing through the waves. A humpback whale. A flick of its flukes and it dives — but the water is so clear that I can see its body for a few seconds, huge and majestic, navigating the sea with lazy strokes of its powerful fins. Five minutes later, I see a pod of transient killer whales. The experience is like something out of a British Columbian picture book.